Oriel Pendant Challenge -- Week 1: Deer Totem

OK. I am restarting my pendant challenge to create one new oriel design a week. I think I've started and stopped this twice. Maybe this time -- the third attempt will be the charm.

When I was living in Boston I would often drive out to one of the parks a few miles outside of the city. I would hike out into the woods and try to get a grasp on what direction I wanted to go with my life. One park in particular sticks out in my mind. I found a trail that led up to a crop of rocks surrounded by pines. There in the warm afternoon sun, I would sit down on the rocks and gaze out over the view of trees and hills. A feeling of calm and rightness would soon merge with my awareness. During these visits I would meditate and call on spirit guides to help me. The one that appeared most often in my musings was a female deer -- I called her Ramona.

There are many different interpretations of deer symbolism. Stephen Farmer's Power Animal Cards says that the deer totem represents the pathfinder, the instincts that we have and should trust to guide us through situations. In Medicine Cards, the deer totem represents gentleness of spirit, which heals all wounds. And then what also comes to my mind is the movie Powder. In it a hunter shoots a deer and then touches it as it lays there dying. He merges with the deer and feels its fear and pain as his own. In doing so his life is transformed and changes forever.This Animal Totem Ariel is 3-D and shows two deer standing side by side in front of a field of tall grass. The back is a hunter green ribbon with gold flourishes. I used beveled glass on the front. The dangle is a silver-toned East Indian charm with Swavorski crystal and green semi-precious stones hanging below. I have dangled from the necklace Swavorski crystal beads in Erinite green and Dorado copper-orange.